As Florida authorities work to identify the people who died in Thursday's catastrophic bridge collapse, state and federal investigators will begin the task of figuring out how and why the five-day-old span failed.More >>

As Florida authorities work to identify the people who died in Thursday's catastrophic bridge collapse, state and federal investigators will begin the task of figuring out how and why the five-day-old span failed.More >>

(AP Photo/Brandon Wade). Florida guard Egor Koulechov (4) and St. Bonaventure guard Idris Taqqee (1) battle for the ball during the first half of a first-round game at the NCAA college basketball tournament in Dallas, Thursday, March 15, 2018.

Egor Koulechov scored 20 points and Florida eased past St. Bonaventure 77-62, ending the Bonnies' postseason run two days after their first NCAA Tournament victory in 48 years.

In a drill emphasizing swift, focused action with air guns and protective masks, they were trying to snuff out a gunman who'd taken a hostage.

"It's a situation where there's a lot of muscle memory, there's a lot of technique and tactics that are involved. We have to know what we're going to do," said Boca Raton Police Chief Dan Alexander.

Although, they've never had to do it for a real school shooting, FAU police say, they would call in Boca Raton police because of their deeper resources.

They have hostage negotiators and a SWAT team.

But learning to work together takes work. "It's important for us to share techniques, so you don't have one officer pulling the door and one pushing the door," said Alexander.

This is their 10th training session together.

Training for these types of scenarios got much more serious after Columbine and Virginia Tech. "It's been happening at a university setting. You really have to gear up, it's really getting your patrolmen to coordinate a rapid response to save lives," said FAU's deputy chief Keith Totten.

Police officers no longer wait for SWAT teams.

They move as quickly as possible to find the shooter and end the threat.

"We go into the situation immediately. It could be one officer, two officers, four officers. We don't wait anymore," said Alexander.